The global pharmaceutical sector is highly vulnerable to corruption abuse, with both governments and companies needing to properly address the corruption risks. In this mini-blog series two insights of corruption in the health systems, which the pharmaceutical sector is a dominant area of, are given. Both of insights come from Nigeria, a country that demonstrated...
Last week the pharmacy chain Boots was accused of exploiting an NHS scheme to boost profits. The NHS scheme in question is the Medicines Use Review (MUR), an advanced service offered by pharmacies. An MUR involves a pharmacist giving professional advice to patients taking multiple prescription medicines and it is targeted at high risk groups,...
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February 22, 2016
Eighty-four companies are listed on the most recent FCPA blog corporate investigations list. These companies are part of an ongoing and unresolved investigation related to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and have disclosed it in their financial statements to the U.S. authorities. As I work in Transparency International’s (TI) Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Programme...
Health concerns have been identified as a top priority in two key documents released this week. There are clear synergies between these documents, which have identified common areas of intervention and support. In its National security strategy and strategic defence and security review 2015, public health is identified as a “Tier One” risk – i.e....
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November 17, 2015
TI-UK sat down with the new Director of the Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Programme to see what drew her to the position and where she wants to take the Programme. What drew you to the position? I have been working on health issues for many years and this stems from my conviction that health is a...
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November 10, 2015
The outrageously high and rapid price increases on critical medicines by Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Turing Pharmaceuticals have made headlines in recent weeks. Like Captain Louis Renault in Casablanca, society seems “shocked, shocked” to discover that a pharmaceutical company is price-gouging patients. But should we be surprised that a pharmaceutical company will maximize profits when there...
